Jose'phus
12. HYPOMNESTICI AUCTOR, sometimes called JOSEPHUS CHRISTIANUS.
Identity
has been conjectured by Vossius to be the Joseph of Tiberias who, having been converted from Judaism to Christianity, was raised by Constantine the Great to the rank of comes, and was the friend and host of Epiphanius (comp. Epiphan.
Adv. Haeres. 30.4-12). Cave, however, who was at one time disposed to coincide with Vossius, has shown that there are good reasons, derived from the work itself, for placing the author of the
Hypomnesticon early in the fifth century, about A. D. 420, long after the friend of Epiphanius, who was already an aged man in the middle of the fourth century.
Works
The work
Ἰωσήππου βιβλίον Ὑπομνηστικόν,
Josephi Hypomnesticon seu Libellus Memorialis or
Commonitorium, is devoted chiefly to the removal of such doubts or difficulties as might occur to less instructed Christians in reading the Scriptures, and is usually divided into five books, and 167 chapters. Chapter 136 is an extract from Hippolytus of Thebes [HIPPOLYTUS, No. 3], interpolated, as Cave supposes, by a later hand.
This extract inclined Fabricius, who was not disposed to regard it as an interpolation, to place the writer in the eleventh century; and it was probably the same reason which induced Gallandius to assign to the work the date A. D. 1000.
But the editor of the last and posthumous volume of the
Bibliotheca of Gallandius supports the conclusion of Cave as to the earlier existence of the writer, whom, however, he identifies with Joseph of Tiberias.
The materials of the work are chiefly taken from Flavius Josephus, who is once or twice cited by name; and Cave suspects that the work was originally anonymous, and that the name of Josephus indicated, not the author's name, but the source from which he borrowed his statements ; but that being mistaken for the author's name, he received the designation of Christianus, by way of distinction from Flavius Josephus.
Editions
The
Hypomnesticon was first published by Fabricius, with a Latin version and notes, as an appendix to the
Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, vol. 2.8vo. Hamb. 1723, and was reprinted in the second edition of that work (8vo. Hamb. 1741), and by Gallandius in the volume above mentioned (the 14th) of the
Bibliotheca Patrum, fol. Venice, 1781.
Confusion with work of Pseudo Joseph Ben Gurion
Oudin regards the
Hypomnesticon as an interpolated Greek version of portions of the Hebrew work of the Pseudo Joseph Ben Gorion [No. 10].
Further Information
Cave,
Hist. Litt. vol. i. p. 397; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. v. p. 60, vol. viii. p. 347, vol. xi. p. 51; and
Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test. vol. ii.; Galland.
Bibl. Pastrum, vol. xiv.; Oudin,
Comment. de Scriptor. Ecclesiast. vol. ii. col. 1058, &c.
